Tag Archives: excerpts

More from Song and Sword, the first novel I published, since I’m working on a sequel and need the motivation. This follows immediately after last week’s snippet.

Continuing from last week.

“Yes,” the voice purred from behind him as the Orcs tied her in a position similar to his. “Your little lady love. She was the perfect bait.”

Dakkas tried to turn to see who was speaking, but a sudden cry snapped his head back toward Kashrya and he watched helplessly as one drew back his arm to strike her again.

“Stop it! Let her go. You have me, now let her go.”

“Ah, but I want both of you,” the voice said. “It will be so much more fun to watch you suffer her torment.”

Dakkas was forced to watch as the Orcs struck her, again and again, until he was sure that she could not take any more, and tears streamed down his face. It was his fault that she was here, his fault that she was being subjected to this.

“They’re not going to kill her,” the voice assured him through her sobs of pain. “Tomorrow, or perhaps the next day, or maybe next week, they will be enjoying her in other ways.”

Dakkas felt sick at what the voice implied and shook his head in denial. “No,” he moaned. “Please. Let her go.”

Blurb:Pashevel: a simple Elven Bard — and the Crown Prince

Marlia: a Paladin of Arithen, the Elven God of Justice – seeking vengeance for the destruction of her village

Dakkas: heir to the Drow throne — if his father and elder half-brother don’t kill him first

Kashrya: raised among a tribe of nomadic Humans, she is unaware of her true heritage — or of the prophecy that made her mother an outcast

Their goal: build a bridge between the Elves and their outcast brethren, the Drow, reuniting them and undoing the damage caused in a time so far gone that history has become legend and legend has become myth.

But first, they have a problem to solve: how do you stop a war that hasn’t started?

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, bloggers, and readers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!). Check out all the other awesome snippets by clicking on the picture above.

Picking up from last week. Ayess thinks he has found the source of the strange random energy flux and ni and Taliya are on their way to the cryo chambers.

“Even empty they will draw some power. Just enough to maintain their circuits and the integrity of the field. But for some reason, one of them is drawing more than it should, but not all the time.” Ni frowned. “It’s actually drawing more than it should even if it was in use.”

“Is it going to blow up?”

“Probably not,” ni replied as ni opened the door to the room that housed the cryogenic units. The coffin-like chambers were dark, an array of dim lights indicating that they were empty but had power.

Ayess’ race does not have words for he/she/his/hers, etc, because they are (for lack of a better term) hermaphroditic. Their pronouns to refer to other members of their race are “ni” (for he/she/him/her), “ni-es” (his/hers), “ni-en” (they/them) and “ni-en-es” for theirs.

More from Song and Sword, the first novel I published, since I’m working on a sequel and need the motivation. This follows immediately after last week’s snippet.

Continuing from last week.

Dakkas woke to darkness and pain. He moved his head and a wave of nausea nearly made him pass out again. His shoulders ached; he tried to move them to relieve the strain and realized he was bound by his wrists, his arms taking the brunt of his weight, his feet barely touching the ground.

“Good. You’re awake. I wouldn’t want you to miss the entertainment I’ve arranged for you.” The voice sounded familiar but the pounding in his head made it hard to hear anything other than the memory of Rebel’s screams. He forced his eyes to focus but all he could see was a stone table lit by small guttering torches. He glanced up at his wrists: the ropes holding him were attached to rings set into stalactites.

“No! No!” The voice – a woman’s – was a sob of fear and resistance and he turned his head to look for its owner, already knowing…

Two Orcs shoved a struggling figure toward the table, and it was all Dakkas could do not to cry out. Kashrya. His mind screamed her name, but he refused to give the mysterious voice the satisfaction…

“Yes,” the voice purred from behind him as the Orcs tied her in a position similar to his. “Your little lady love. She was the perfect bait.”

Blurb:Pashevel: a simple Elven Bard — and the Crown Prince

Marlia: a Paladin of Arithen, the Elven God of Justice – seeking vengeance for the destruction of her village

Dakkas: heir to the Drow throne — if his father and elder half-brother don’t kill him first

Kashrya: raised among a tribe of nomadic Humans, she is unaware of her true heritage — or of the prophecy that made her mother an outcast

Their goal: build a bridge between the Elves and their outcast brethren, the Drow, reuniting them and undoing the damage caused in a time so far gone that history has become legend and legend has become myth.

But first, they have a problem to solve: how do you stop a war that hasn’t started?

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, bloggers, and readers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!). Check out all the other awesome snippets by clicking on the picture above.

Picking up from last week:

“My eyes? You’ve seen them every day since you bought me.”

She shook her head impatiently. “They were… glowing, sort of. Not bright, but just kind of … glowing.”

Ayess started. “You can see that?”

“Yes, why? What does it mean?”

“I’ve never heard of a human being able to see it before. You said this isn’t the first time?”

“That day in the restaurant on Florris Five. What is it, Ayess? What is it that I’m seeing?”

Before ni could answer the power flux alarm went off and as ni turned to the console Taliya got the distinct impression that ni was glad of the distraction.

“The cryo chambers.” Ayess grabbed a small monitoring unit as ni rose and started for the door. “I think I’ve finally found it.”

Ayess’ race does not have words for he/she/his/hers, etc, because they are (for lack of a better term) hermaphroditic. Their pronouns to refer to other members of their race are “ni” (for he/she/him/her), “ni-es” (his/hers), “ni-en” (they/them) and “ni-en-es” for theirs.

More from Song and Sword, the first novel I published, since I’m working on a sequel and need the motivation. This follows immediately after last week’s snippet.

Dakkas has been tracking the Orcs that took Kashrya.

As darkness gathered he found himself on a mountain trail. He was not familiar with this passage, but it was at the foot of it that he had lost the Orcs’ trail as they traveled over solid stone. Still, there was nowhere else they could have gone, and small deposits of dirt gave him an occasional partial footprint that kept him going.

His mind whirled, consumed with dark thoughts. What were they doing to her? Why had they taken her? And why had no one in the village – save the shaman – been at all upset to find her gone? There had almost been a sense of relief when they realized that she had not returned, that she had been taken, as if some problem had been solved and life could get back to normal.

Rebel grew agitated and he tried to soothe his mount, but the unicorn stopped, tossing his head and refusing to move forward. Dakkas leaned forward, reaching out for his horn, but suddenly the night erupted in shouts and Dakkas felt hands grabbing him, pulling him from his saddle. He heard Rebel voicing a challenge and yelled for him to get away and then his world went dark, his unicorn’s scream of defiance still echoing in his ears.

Blurb:Pashevel: a simple Elven Bard — and the Crown Prince

Marlia: a Paladin of Arithen, the Elven God of Justice – seeking vengeance for the destruction of her village

Dakkas: heir to the Drow throne — if his father and elder half-brother don’t kill him first

Kashrya: raised among a tribe of nomadic Humans, she is unaware of her true heritage — or of the prophecy that made her mother an outcast

Their goal: build a bridge between the Elves and their outcast brethren, the Drow, reuniting them and undoing the damage caused in a time so far gone that history has become legend and legend has become myth.

But first, they have a problem to solve: how do you stop a war that hasn’t started?

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, bloggers, and readers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!). Check out all the other awesome snippets by clicking on the picture above.

Picking up from last week’s snippet.

“I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t found her.”

“Do you really mean that?”

She considered the question for a moment. “Yes and no. On the one hand, I have freed another slave, but on the other…” She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them she looked into the Araxian’s eyes. “On the other hand, I liked it a lot better when it was just the two of us and I wish it still was.”

Taliya sat up straighter, staring at ni. “I’m seeing it again.”

“Seeing what again?”

“Your eyes.”

“My eyes? You’ve seen them every day since you bought me.”

She shook her head impatiently. “They were… glowing, sort of. Not bright, but just kind of … glowing.”

Ayess’ race does not have words for he/she/his/hers, etc, because they are (for lack of a better term) hermaphroditic. Their pronouns to refer to other members of their race are “ni” (for he/she/him/her), “ni-es” (his/hers), “ni-en” (they/them) and “ni-en-es” for theirs.

More from Song and Sword, the first novel I published, since I’m working on a sequel and need the motivation. This follows immediately after last week’s snippet.

Picking up from last week, Dakkas has left the Humans to find Kashrya.

He dismounted when he reached the site of the skirmish and frowned as he studied the bodies. He had grown up around Orcs — the Drow had used them as slave labor for almost as long as they had been in exile—and he had never known them to form any kind of organized groups outside of some sort of loose family structure. But these Orcs… They were different somehow and he knelt to examine one more closely.

Orcs were roughly the same height as Drow, but had a heavier build. These had the characteristic grey-green skin and the large dark eyes set into a flat round face, but they were much larger than any he had ever seen, both in height and build. All were wearing a uniform bearing an insignia that he had never seen, and he was puzzled. An army of Orcs would be formidable, but forming an army just wasn’t in their nature – as a rule they were timid and shy, even fearful.

The ground was so trampled that it was nearly impossible to read the signs of the battle, but at last he found the place where they had first come across the river. He could see the smaller footprints of the women, could see one set that did not run, that stood facing the oncoming Orcs.

He stood in her footprints and closed his eyes. She had been in a balanced fighting position, and he could see her clearly in his mind’s eye, the small hand axe that she carried held in a ready position. He opened his eyes and examined the ground. There was some blood, about at the reach of her arms, but none where she had stood, and he felt a wave of relief. At least she was most likely still alive. But why? Why would the Orcs have captured her? That, along with the uniforms, made no sense.

Blurb:Pashevel: a simple Elven Bard — and the Crown Prince

Marlia: a Paladin of Arithen, the Elven God of Justice – seeking vengeance for the destruction of her village

Dakkas: heir to the Drow throne — if his father and elder half-brother don’t kill him first

Kashrya: raised among a tribe of nomadic Humans, she is unaware of her true heritage — or of the prophecy that made her mother an outcast

Their goal: build a bridge between the Elves and their outcast brethren, the Drow, reuniting them and undoing the damage caused in a time so far gone that history has become legend and legend has become myth.

But first, they have a problem to solve: how do you stop a war that hasn’t started?

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, bloggers, and readers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!). Check out all the other awesome snippets by clicking on the picture above.

“Yes,” she replied, her voice barely audible. She drew a deep shaky breath and swallowed hard. “Thank you, Ayess. You’ve just said what I felt but couldn’t quite grasp. Luzita would have had no qualms about doing the same to me.”

“Are you afraid that she will try?”

She shook her head. “She can’t. The collar works only for me and she’s smart enough to know that I’m the one taking care of her, and that if anything happens to me…” She looked up at Ayess. “If anything happens to me, the ship is yours. It’s already recorded,” she added to forestall a protest. “The ship, my accounts, everything.”

“Nothing is going to happen to you.”

“I hope not. But if it does, I want you to know that you will not need to worry about your future. And don’t worry about Luzita, either. I told her that if there’s trouble I would know where it started and she would be the one leaving the ship, not you. I wouldn’t put it past her to try to tell you the exact opposite just to try to create discord, play us against each other.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m beginning to wish I hadn’t found her.”

Ayess’ race does not have words for he/she/his/hers, etc, because they are (for lack of a better term) hermaphroditic. Their pronouns to refer to other members of their race are “ni” (for he/she/him/her), “ni-es” (his/hers), “ni-en” (they/them) and “ni-en-es” for theirs.

More from Song and Sword, the first novel I published, since I’m working on a sequel and need the motivation. This follows immediately after last week’s snippet.

Picking up from last week. Dakkas and the hunting party returned to the camp and discovered that the young women had been attacked, and that Kashrya, the object of Dakkas’ interest, is missing.

“We have to go get her!” The words burst from his lips before he could stop them and everyone fell silent, staring at him.

“Who are you?” someone asked.

“His name is Dakkas,” Thanor said before he could reply. “He helped us with our hunt and I invited him to share our fires.”

“But Kashrya—” Dakkas had started.

“No.” The new speaker was unmistakably Thanor’s father. “I will not risk my people to go after her.”

“But she held them off,” one of the young women protested. “She put herself between them and us so we could escape.”

The chief shook his head. “No. She is not worth the risk.”

Dakkas felt a surge of anger but before he could speak his attention was drawn to the shaman, who was suddenly standing at Rebel’s shoulder, looking up at him. “Find her,” he whispered. “But do not bring her back here. I love her too much to subject her to any more of their whispers and prejudices.”

Dakkas, suddenly unable to trust his voice, merely nodded, and the shaman shoved a bundle into his saddlebag. “Those belong to her,” he said, and Dakkas nodded again, but the shaman was gone, as suddenly and as silently as he had appeared, and Dakkas looked back to the chief.

“If you will not go after one of your own people,” he said, “then I will.” He turned Rebel toward the river, shaking with anger. Not worth the risk?

Blurb:Pashevel: a simple Elven Bard — and the Crown Prince

Marlia: a Paladin of Arithen, the Elven God of Justice – seeking vengeance for the destruction of her village

Dakkas: heir to the Drow throne — if his father and elder half-brother don’t kill him first

Kashrya: raised among a tribe of nomadic Humans, she is unaware of her true heritage — or of the prophecy that made her mother an outcast

Their goal: build a bridge between the Elves and their outcast brethren, the Drow, reuniting them and undoing the damage caused in a time so far gone that history has become legend and legend has become myth.

But first, they have a problem to solve: how do you stop a war that hasn’t started?

Rainbow Snippets is a group for LGBTQ+ authors, bloggers, and readers to gather once a week and share six sentences from a work of fiction–a WIP or a finished work or even a 6-sentence book recommendation (no spoilers please!). Check out all the other awesome snippets by clicking on the picture above.

Picking up from last week.

And some… some have sex just because it feels good and some… some use it to get what they want.”

A sickening feeling washed through her as she realized that that was what Luzita did, a thought that she tried – unsuccessfully – to push out of her mind. “And those people, they… they play on the minds and emotions of others, even pretending to be something they aren’t to get what they want.”

Like Maureena, she realized. Maureena and Luzita were cut from the same bolt of Numali silk. Maureena had no doubt recognized herself in Luzita and that had been the real reason she had sold her – she couldn’t risk the competition for control of Taliya.

Taliya closed her eyes to fight back the tears that were threatening to spill over. After a few deep breaths she continued. “For me… sex… love-making… I have to have an emotional bond with the other person. It’s not a matter of them being male or female or whatever, it’s… I have to have some sort of connection to them. And with Luzita… that is broken. I… When Maureena, my mother, sold her, she told her that I said to do it, and Luzita believed her. She believed that I would do that to her.”

“Because that is the sort of thing that she would do to you,” Ayess said quietly, and she started, opening her eyes to stare at her first officer.

Ayess’ race does not have words for he/she/his/hers, etc, because they are (for lack of a better term) hermaphroditic. Their pronouns to refer to other members of their race are “ni” (for he/she/him/her), “ni-es” (his/hers), “ni-en” (they/them) and “ni-en-es” for theirs.